Marin Realtor steamed over 'baby seat' incident on SkyWest flight

A prominent Marin Realtor plans to file a complaint with federal officials next week after she says a SkyWest Airlines flight attendant refused to let her secure her infant daughter in a safety seat on a flight from Aspen to San Francisco.

Melissa Bradley says she bought an extra ticket on the Dec. 23 flight operated by SkyWest for United Airlines so she could strap her daughter, Sunshine, who will turn 1 year old on Thursday, safely into the rear-facing Graco SnugRide seat. Bradley had used similar seats for all four of her children for a decade with no problems, but SkyWest flight attendants told her she would have to hold Sunshine because the seat lacked a Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, approval sticker and was rear-facing.

"I was so worried and stressed out -- I was crying," Bradley said. "I'm just a very safe person. I always put the kids in seats. I've done that for a very long time, for years."

Sunshine has already made about eight round-trip flights in her short life, traveling to Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida and Georgia, among other locales, Bradley said. No one has ever questioned the seat on those trips.

After Bradley became upset about the situation on the SkyWest flight, a male flight attendant threatened to eject her but her husband, Robert Bradley -- with whom she runs Bradley Real Estate -- interceded, she said. During the flight, the couple located the seat's FAA sticker and were permitted to put Sunshine inside -- so long as she faced forward. However, Bradley said that's dangerous because the seat is designed to face the other way. A Graco spokeswoman didn't immediately have information on the potential perils of using the seat the wrong way.

But Marissa Snow, a spokeswoman for SkyWest, confirmed that the rear-facing Graco seat is approved for the company's aircraft. A sticker on the seat Bradley showed the Independent Journal read "certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft."

"We are regretful of the misunderstanding and have followed up directly with this flight attendant," Snow said in a statement. "Our first priority is truly the safety of all onboard our aircraft."

Aspen resident Camille Menager, 31, said she was sitting in the row behind the Bradleys and witnessed the exchange.

"I'm a nanny, and all infant carriers I've ever seen are rear-facing," Menager said. "I think (the flight attendant) was coming from, 'This is what my manual says and I need to stick by this.' He was trying to do his job, but it wasn't as compassionate I think as it could have been."

In fact, FAA rules say "no aircraft operator may prohibit a child from using an approved (child restraint system) when the parent/guardian purchases a seat for the child."

"Aft-facing" systems that won't fit in standard plane seats "may be moved to a bulkhead seat or a seat in a row with additional pitch," the rules state. Parents are allowed to hold children younger than 2 years old, rather than buy seats for them.

United has refunded the tickets, which the family purchased on the company's website, Bradley said, noting that she appreciates the gesture but "my point isn't to get free tickets.

"I want this to be really made a big deal out of so that they change their training for their flight attendants," she said. "Even after I showed him the sticker, he didn't know that (the seat) was OK."

Kate Hanni, executive director of consumer advocacy group FlyersRights.org, said she plans to work with Bradley to publicize the issue.

"In a car would you hold a child in your lap? You can't," Hanni said. "People need to really realize that infants are at huge risk of incredible injury not being in a car seat facing backward when they fly.

"The same rules that apply to cars should apply to infants in aircraft," she added. "For a flight attendant to have told them that they had to hold a child on their lap was wrong."